One of the notable aspects of Civilization was the rather motley and incongruous crew of historical figures used to represent each faction. The biggest strategic factor is Civilization’s signature “Wonders of the World” improvement these unique city projects are as numerous as they are expensive, so building them all yourself is next to impossible on any reasonable challenge difficulty. This gives you a bit of flexibility in your strategy, though there’s only a limited amount of optimization-it’s not rock-paper-scissors units progress with each era in a straight-forward manner-it’s more about when you get one of one type over one of the other.

Advances are less linear than RTS games and improvements are permanent. You’re presented with opportunities for peace and trade or war and conquest. You research technologies, which allow you to build better units and new city improvements. The premise is simple but has become timeworn: you take a faction from Stone Age primitivism to either global conquest or interplanetary colonization. While there had been earlier games that incorporated many of the features, such as conquest, tech trees, and city management, Sid Meier’s landmark game brought them all together and with the necessary oomph and flair to appeal to a large demographic beyond just wargamers that gave it a staying power as one of the most dominant and recognizable PC franchises in history.

Sid Meier’s Civilization was a watershed for the 4x genre before the genre even had its present name.

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